Danny ducked as several robots came at him, causing them to crash into each other and send out a spray of sparks. Others shot ectoplasmic beams at him. He turned intangible and started jumping behind things...and then through them. He ran through several obstacles before jumping through the floor. Leaving his hands tangible, he used the momentum to swing down, and up and foot first into a robot that was following. Then he dived through the punching bag, and into the base of the boxing rink, where he phased himself through the floor, and took a breather.

"Not good enough, Daniel," a voice next to his shoulder said. Danny hated going through solid things like this because he couldn't see, but he knew who the voice belonged to.

"What?" he asked the darkness. "What's not good!"

"They'd want you here...you're contained, and you'd have to take the long way out of it. When you can't fly, it's a hindrance, and you can only stay intangible for a short amount of time."

"There's a limit?" Danny said, suddenly petrified to be there.

"You've never noticed?" Vlad's voice blurted.

"I've never really tested it," Danny replied. "I'd better get outta here..." He began to stand up, but he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't panic. You'll loose if you panic, like you have for the last three days!"

"I've beat every robot you've thrown at me!" Danny growled. He hated when Vlad watched his training...but he was fast becoming addicted to how much he forgot when he concentrated on the battle. He needed the escape almost as much as he needed the training...and he needed the training badly...although not as badly as Vlad seemed to believe.

"Not unscathed," Vlad pointed out. Danny shook his head in frustration. Again, he had to concede, and he hated it. He'd spent every night the last few days healing and trying not to roll onto an ecto-burn. The sore muscles caused him constant pain, and he could barely make it to breakfast at all. Taking a deep breath, he listened for the droids above him. He heard nothing, and drew a quick conclusion. When Vlad's hand was no longer on his shoulder, he crawled through the darkness to where he hoped was a corner of the rink. Then, reaching out with his foot, he stuck the tip through the floor, making it visible. Immediately, he pulled it back, and crouched as several shots were heard. He jumped up and quickly seeing the robots, dived at one, taking it back into the darkness of the base of the boxing rink, and leaving it there. He'd never done that before...and the thought of it scared him. The molecules would have to fuse for it to stay there. That would instantly kill anything living...wouldn't it? The thought made him shutter.

He jumped out of the rink again, in a different place, and grabbed for another of the round droids. Not for the first time, he realized how dangerous his powers really were, but quickly pushed the thought away. As he continued to fight, though, the thought kept dancing across his mind, no matter how hard he tried to ignore or banish it. With a regretful sigh, he couldn't help but wish for the days when he had been blissfully unaware of how dangerous he really was to those around him. He chuckled sadly as a new thought of how Ironic it was that he now wished for the days when he had wished he didn't have any ghost powers at all, crossed his mind.

Danny fell onto his bed exhausted. Training had been particularly hard tonight, but Vlad had finally complimented him. Not that he cared...he still hated being here, but he liked to think he was making some sort of progress.

"He's doing that on purpose, you know," a voice said to him, and Danny realized that his ghost sense had been going off for several seconds.

"Who's there?" he asked, not even getting up. Vlad had spirit servants working around, and they floated by invisibly all the time. Strange, but Danny hadn't seen any human servants, and the ghosts never talked to him. He had never felt so alone as he did when he'd moved here. The first few nights, he had curled up and ducked under the bed...it reminded him of when he was young and he'd sit in his mother's arms in a closet while she talked on the phone or something. He had no idea where she'd picked up such a habit, but it seemed to help him now. He felt lost and isolated...but that had also been when the training wasn't as difficult, and Vlad had just wanted to see what he could do. He'd been easy to impress then. It seemed like an eternity ago, although Danny knew he'd only been there for a few days.

The teenager shuttered where he lay on the bed and finally sat up. He didn't want to impress that man. Even if he wasn't as evil as he'd first thought...there was still something about him that Danny did not like. "Who are you?" He asked again.

"My name is Alesha," a timid voice spoke again. "I've been watching you."

"You've been watching me in my room!" Danny asked.

"No," a girl appeared in front of him. "This is the first time I've ever come to your room. I watch you train."

"So why can't I sense you?" he asked.

"When Vlad's in the room, you don't pay attention to your ghost sense, right?" she asked.

"Oh," Danny looked around nervously. "Er...right. What did you say earlier?"

"He's playing mind games with you," she said. "He's been doing that to other ghosts for years." She glared back at the door. "He doesn't compliment you for weeks, sometimes months on end, and then finally does. It's one of his more pleasant tricks, actually, but very subtle, and very useful."
"Oh," Danny thought back, and realized she was telling the truth. "Wow..."

"It works really well, doesn't it," she shook her head.

"Yeah," his eyes narrowed and the thought that Vlad WAS just as evil as he'd first suspected crossed his mind. Then he looked up at the girl still floating before him. She had dark brown skin, and the bright-green spectral eyes that most Ghosts had. Her long, black hair hung over her shoulders, but seemed to float at the same time. All in all, she was very pretty.

"So," he rubbed the back of his neck, taking his thoughts purposefully away from that track, "why are you telling me this?" She snorted.

"I was tricked into working here," she said bitterly, "and I doubt I'll ever be able to leave with his knowledge. I don't want that to happen to anyone else." With that, she dove through the floor, leaving an incredulous Danny in her wake.